An internal combustion engine (which may be referred to herein individually as an “engine” or collectively as “engines”) may be used to convert chemical energy stored in a fuel supply into mechanical energy (e.g., via a driveshaft of the engine). A fuel-oxidizer mixture is received in a variable volume of a combustion chamber of an engine that is defined by a piston translating within a cylinder of the engine. Under operation, expansion of the combustion products within the variable volume causes the piston to move, which may be transferred to an output shaft of the engine.
Engine misfire may occur under certain operating conditions (or due to a particular operating condition) and may involve an engine skipping over one or more processes of a combustion cycle. Engine misfire can generally cause the engine to run rough, jerk, or buck. Further, engine misfire can also cause the engine to run inefficiently. There are several types of engine misfires. Some of the common occurrences of engine misfire include lean misfires and ignition misfires. Lean misfire refers to an engine misfiring because the air-fuel ratio is not properly balanced. Ignition misfires occur when either the spark plug, wire, distributor, or ignition coil fail. A byproduct of engine misfire may be white smoke in the exhaust of the engine. White smoke in the exhaust is caused by unburned hydrocarbons being included in the exhaust. Accordingly, mitigating white smoke can reduce engine misfire.
One attempt to mitigate white smoke is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. JP 2001041082A (“the '082 patent”). Per the '082 patent, a target injection quantity (e.g., of fuel) may be determined on the basis of an operating condition and an injector energization time corresponding to the target injection quantity is set. In the '082 patent, fuel injection is performed in an amount equal to the target injection amount. In addition, in the '082 patent, the common rail pressure is feedback controlled toward a predetermined target value according to the engine operating state.
While the fuel injection process of the '082 patent may utilize a target injection amount and control the common rail pressure, the rail pressure of a combustion chamber of the engine is controlled to be a minimum amount of rail pressure, which may still result in white smoke and/or engine misfire.
The engine misfire mitigation system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.